Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a honeycomb structure, and more particularly, it relates to a honeycomb structure which is capable of increasing an amount of a catalyst to be loaded and inhibiting increase of pressure loss during use.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, consciousness for environmental problems has increased in the whole society, and in a technical field in which fuel is burnt to generate power, various technologies have been developed to remove toxic components such as nitrogen oxides from an exhaust gas generated during the burning of the fuel. For example, various technologies have been developed to remove toxic components such as nitrogen oxides from the exhaust gas emitted from a car engine. During such removal of the toxic components in the exhaust gas, it is general to cause chemical reaction in the toxic component by use of a catalyst, thereby changing the component into another comparatively non-toxic component. Further, as a catalyst carrier onto which the catalyst for exhaust gas purification is to be loaded, a honeycomb structure has been used.
Furthermore, the exhaust gas emitted by combustion of an internal combustion engine includes a toxic gas of nitrogen oxides or the like as well as particulate matter such as soot or ash. Hereinafter, the particulate matter will be referred to as “PM” sometimes. For example, regulations on removal of PM emitted from a diesel engine become strict worldwide, and as a filter to remove the PM, a honeycomb filter having a honeycomb structure is used.
Heretofore, as these honeycomb structures, there have been suggested honeycomb structures each including a honeycomb structure body having porous partition walls defining a plurality of cells which extend from an inflow end face to an outflow end face and become through channels for a fluid (e.g., see Patent Documents 1 and 2). In Patent Document 1, there is disclosed a honeycomb structure indicating a predetermined relation between a cell density X and a thickness Y of the partition walls. It is considered that in the honeycomb structure described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to decrease a backpressure and to increase a wash coat loading amount of the catalyst. Furthermore, in Patent Document 2, there is disclosed a porous honeycomb filter made of a material containing cordierite in which a pore distribution is controlled as a main crystal phase.
[Patent Document 1] U.S. Pat. No. 7,842,371
[Patent Document 2] JP-A-2002-219319